


Written In Reverse

by carrieonmywaywardson



Category: Tomorrowland (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cops, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-21
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-04-05 11:02:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4177353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carrieonmywaywardson/pseuds/carrieonmywaywardson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I came back," she says in a small voice, "to tell you she can change it. All of it."</p><p>"Change <i>what?</i>"</p><p>There's silence before she answers. "Your extinction."</p><p> <i>There's a globe in his hands. He can see the world change, as he spins it round and round and round as if it he could turn it back, and -</i></p><p>Athena grabs his arm with alarming strength. "It's the end, Frank. The end as we knew it."</p><p>(In which Frank is former inventor turned NYPD police detective and Casey is the captain's daughter.)</p><p>**CURRENTLY ON HIATUS</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [writingramblr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingramblr/gifts).



> I was gonna do a cop - reporter AU but I changed my mind. So take this AU (which turned out awfully similar to the intro chapter of I Hunt Killers, and The Flash, and Teen Wolf, and pretty much everything else with this premise) instead.  
> To the anon on tumblr and writinggramblr, this one's for you guys.

"No, Casey," he hears.

"Dad - "

"I mean it, Casey. No more tagging along. Ever."

He smirks and continues to wait, outside the door.

Five minutes later, Casey emerges from the office with a triumphant grin. She jerks a thumb back. "Your cue."

The captain's voice follows her outside. "This is the _last_ one!"

Frank frowns. "Stop pissing him off so much," he tells her. "I'm the one getting yelled at here, you know."

"Oh, you'll be fine." Casey winks, and something blooms inside of him - something warm and affectionate and irrational he always craves.

He doesn't think he could go a day without this kid.

"I'll grab a coffee for you, then," Casey says with a wave, heading to the break room.

"Another for your dad, won't you?" Frank hollers back when he recovers, Casey giving him a thumbs-up before disappearing round the corner of the precinct.

Frank steps into Captain Edward Newton's office. "Captain."

"Take a seat, Walker." Eddie's pinching the bridge of his nose. Frank feels sorry for him. It's not even nine in the morning yet. "I know you were waiting."

Frank nods. "Sir."

Eddie sighs. "You know the usuals -" he says, "- take her there; bring her back; do _not_ let her out of your sight; do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

Eddie leans in close. "I have a bad feeling about this one, Frank," he murmurs. "I looked at the files. We've been called in twice already this week, and again by the state. They're getting more frequent, more desperate. So, please, be careful."

Casey appears in the doorway. "Hey, Frank." She sets the coffee cups on the desk and bends down to hug Eddie. "Hi, dad!"

"Case," Eddie looks as if he's already regretting this.

"Bye, dad!" Casey says in that same obnoxious voice, leaving no room for further reprimand, the words trailing off as she makes a swift escape.

Frank drinks his coffee to hide his smile. It's black, but Casey always laces it with syrup when she thinks he can't see. "I don't know why I even bother," Eddie says. His coffee is milky and sugary, probably. The girl should stop spoiling him. "You've been here a hundred times, probably."

_Fifty-three times, actually,_ Frank thinks, _for four years. But who counts?_


	2. Chapter 2

Frank drives home after the investigation with Casey's smile; it's contagious, like an imprint on his mind.

It's stupid, he knows. He falls into her - not too much, but not enough - as the world gets harder and harder to live on.

_There's a body on the floor; if he could say it was among countless others, he would be exaggerating, not lying._

_To him and the darkness in her eyes, they seem uncountable._

_It gets darker and darker these days._

_"You can't save them all, kid."_

_Casey turns around then, a sad smile playing on her lips."Two wolves, Frank." She brushe_ _s a strand of hair away from the_ _body_ _\- no, the girl's face. "Two wolves."_

"Two wolves," he says, softly.

"Seems like just one to me," a voice besides him says, and he starts violently, swerving from his lane. A car honks at him.

"Holy - " and Frank's staring into a familiar pair of wide eyes as his grip on the steering wheel tightens.

Athena smiles at him brightly from his passenger seat. "Hello, Frank."

Frank takes a sharp breath, turns his eyes to the road and counts to five before he can take a look at her again. "Jesus, don't do that!"

"Do what?" Athena asks, innocuous, picking his badge to inspect from the car tray. "I can't remember doing such a thing to frighten you."

"Yeah, well, it _has_ been twenty-something years," Frank shoots back, his heart still pounding. He really needs to get checked for any potential aneurysms. "Now what, you've come to take me back to Disneyland?"

Her face falls a bit at that, but Frank knows better. "Didn't you like it?"

"I did," Frank admits, as Athena studies his badge with a scrutinizing look, her eyes narrowing down to slits, "until your dad kicked me out!"

"Please stop calling him my dad," Athena says disapprovingly, with those big blue eyes he had grown to memorize, and he wonders, even though deep down he knows the answer, if her freckles have changed at all.

He's missed her so much.

"Frank," she says, and there's so much sincerity in her voice that he wishes he could believe her, "it's nice to see you again."

Frank starts to pull over, because they're going to have a talk, _right now._

Athena visibly panics as the car slows. "Frank, this case, all of the cases you've been working on, they're connected," she rushes, seeming less and less a reality as he parks the car and watches her on in astonishment.

"Wh- "

"I'll come back later," she smiles, tightly, "The girl - "

"Wait - " Frank reaches out as Athena blinks away from sight, and he flops down on his seat in frustration.

He can't shake the feeling that something's terribly wrong.


	3. Chapter 3

Athena reappears when he's making chili.

She's already at home on his kitchen stool when he turns around. Other than almost dropping the pot, he's pretty much prepared for it. "You can't say things like that and just _leave!_ "

"Frank," she says, face serious. "Did you call Casey?"

"I did, and she's fine;" _not to mention confused as fuck,_ "are you going to explain what the hell's going on?" Frank asks, vague enough to cover everything he wants to know that he _knows_ she won't answer. "How much do you know about her?"

Legs pulled up to her chest, Athena stops for a moment like she's rearranging her speech. "I know you're doubting me," she finally says, which is still not a real answer. She looks as if Frank's additional questions will cause her to push back her explanation, which will cause her to leave it unfinished, and basically will ruin her entire day.

"Like hell I am," Frank walks around the counter and resists the urge to ask her _what's new_ because with her, everything is. "So start talking."

"Most of your investigations that have been getting more and more frequent the past year;" Athena jumps in, "homicides, mass murders, bombings; they're all connected... " She looks very small, out of place in his crappy excuse of an apartment.

"To...?" Frank prompts.

Her eyes get wider than ever as she flails her hands. "To the future, Frank!"

Frank raises an eyebrow.

Athena sighs, exasperated. "Stop it." She hops down from the stool with a small amount of indignity and stares at him. "Whatever happened to believing everything was possible?"

"I'm not even sure I want to believe - " he gestures to her self, " _you._ "

Athena gives him a pointed look as she heads over to his couch. "Yes, Frank, it was real. _I'm_ still real. I see I have to be straightforward for you to understand," she sits down, "that my _da_ _d -_ " she wiggles her fingers, "- as you keep calling him, is outright murdering people who hope too much."

Frank grimaces. "Wow, okay. That's dark." Athena continues staring at him, until -

_No._

His heart is torn out of him, for a seemingly infinite moment, as her words sink into him. "God." Numbly, he lowers himself onto the sofa, as Athena looks at him, apologetic. "Not her... "

"They don't know who she is," Athena softly reassures him. "But she's on their list." She looks away for a moment before she can continue. "It's a very long list."

"And how am I supposed to know you're not one of them?"

"Frank." Her sadness seems real, although - "I never was." _Couldn't you see, all this time?_

He supposes not. After all, she doesn't feel. Can't.

"So I came back," she continues in a small voice, _to you,_ "to tell you she can change it. All of it."

"Change _what?_ "

There's silence before she answers. "Your extinction."

_There's a globe in his hands. He can see the world change, as he spins it round and round and round as if it he could turn it back, and -_

Athena grabs his arm with alarming strength. "It's the end, Frank. The end as we knew it."


	4. Chapter 4

_They're alone in the soft lighting of the gym, and it's far too late in the night for him to be constantly restraining his thoughts like this._

_He should've take_ _n her home by now; should've taken her home countless times._ _She's strong, he knows that, but who is she to go on against a man, trained and skilled and twice her a_ _ge_ _and then some_ _,_ _let_ _alone so painfully in love with her?_

_And who is he, to never refuse her?_

_It's inappropriate, how he looks at her, and even at her most oblivious moments he's damn well sure she knows that her dad_ _w_ _oul_ _d_ _'ve never allowed_ _any of this_ _from the start_ _. And even then, would he back off?_

_It's treacherous, and god help him, but he_ wants.

_He's thrown her under his weight now, as she gasps, a sweet little sound that makes him struggle to concentrate, as he braces himself over her, breathing heavily, so that they don't touch -_

_She squirms under his hold, and as she bites her lip, her eyes catch his._

_It's a blur as he tries to stay under control, his leg gives out when she heels the back of his knee. A leg hooks over his and suddenly they're switched_. _A strand of hair curls down from where she had tucked it, framing her face._

_She looks angelic, forbidden, with the yellow light of the ring surrounding her from behind from where she kneels. The bun on her head is coming undone, and he feels the urge to tug it loose, to splay his fingers through her hair._

_"Smooth as ever," he says without a mind, even as his head buzzes with blood thrumming through his veins,_ _"_ kid. _"_

_He tries to tell her she's cheating - again - but her head is bent over his, and she leans down with a whisper, with a promise -_

"Frank?"

He wakes with a start, sending several papers slipping from the table. There's no one in sight.

"Are you up yet?" The voice comes closer, and he manages to run a hand through his hair before Casey sticks her head into the room. "I bought something from the deli."

"Yeah," Frank says, out of breath. "Yeah, I'm up." Sometimes he forgets she has the keys to his place.

Casey walks in and picks up the pages from the floor. "Please don't tell me you were up late again."

_I wasn't,_ Frank thinks. _I just didn't_ make it _to bed._  Out loud, he asks, "Don't you have school today?"

Frank's spared from her answer when his phone rings from somewhere on his desk.

_"Walker, I know it's your day off, but you're going to have to come in,"_ says Eddie when he picks up. _"And don't bother asking her."_

Frank merely looks her way.

"Sweet jesus!" Casey pumps a fist in the air. Frank doesn't think Eddie's consumed enough diabetic coffee for this morning _just yet._ "Can you ring the school board for me?"

_"Don't push it, Case,"_ Eddie says through the line.


	5. Chapter 5

"But why _did_ you skip class in the first place?" Frank asks before he forgets, as they start to pull into the crime scene. "It's not like you'd _known._ "

Casey gives him a look. "It's career day." She stuffs in the last of her sandwich and licks her fingers. "I already know what I wanna be."

"Are you sure, though?" Frank raises his voice as she gets out of the car. "Stars are overrated!"

She bends down to scrunch her nose at him and slams the door.

Frank allows himself a victory smile. "Maybe a little."

"You should go with forensics," Frank says when he catches up with her, with a little hope. "Top notch stuff around here."

"I know what you're trying to do, Frank," Casey replies, unimpressed. "And no, I'm not changing my mind anytime soon."

Frank blinks.

"It's basic psychology," she adds, as he lifts the police tape for her.

"So what've we got?" Frank says when they reach Eddie, and he's pretty sure _he's_ the one who's supposed to be asked this question. They've been switching around a lot recently.

"Small cafe, closed for the day, owner forgot something and came back, saw these people dead on the counter and stuff," Eddie fills him in, and Frank's glad that Eddie's got his coffee with him, finally. God knows Eddie needs his morning coffee. "Fewer than ever. Only couple hours ago. Still presumed terrorists with no specified organization. But this wasn't a convention of any kind, just a shop; that's what's changed."

Casey goes up to one of the lab guys, who readily offers her a pair of latex gloves. "I don't understand," Eddie says, when she's out of earshot. "Look, lately our whole department's been assigned to this sort of stuff. If they going to stop now, it's pointless. They haven't even made a single statement."

_They know happiness, A_ _t_ _hena says. They know hope. They can measure it._

_They, not we._

_Maybe she means she doesn't know those things, maybe she isn't on their side. He's not sure in which sense_ _._

_They're counting down, she says. They want her, for research, for experiments; they want to know how, just how much she can take -_

His hand twitches towards Casey instinctively, but she's a few feet away. Even in his sight, he's not sure if he can protect her.

_I can't stay, Fran_ _k_ _,_ she'd said, when he'd asked her to. _T_ _hey'll_ _notice._

If they take her, he will go with them.

"Look," Casey prompts, when he walks over. She's on her knees, bending over with a careful, professional stance that more or less of his crew doesn't seem to care about these days. "It's like they're just sleeping." She whispers like they still are, as if she doesn't want to wake them up.

Frank doesn't speak, as so not to give anything away. He doesn't know what to, anyway.

Casey's crouched next to one of the victims, collapsed on the table. She lifts the hair on the nape of his neck. "There's a mark there;" she points to a spot under the hairline, "they've changed methods this time." She feels the area around the puncture with her hand, trailing the swell up the vein. "A whole syringe of air, give or take. It's a small number, so they had the time. A small number - "

" - is a number, just the same." Frank says, so he can see her smile again.

And she does, but it's a sad one. "Not like your team hasn't gotten all that." Casey gets up with a little sigh. "Always makes me feel a little melancholy, this job."

Frank stares at her as she strips her gloves off and hands them to the new intern, which Frank's not sure why he hasn't been fired by now by the way he's always devouring Casey with his eyes. "Did you just quote Skyfall?"

Casey smiles threateningly at the intern. "You should go home," she says, as they walk away. "You haven't eaten, have you?"

"No."

"Are you still planning their next move?" Casey asks, concerned. "Maybe they're going to stop. You look so worried."

"No - listen, just be careful, okay?" Frank tries, not knowing just _how_ to keep her safe. "Do you need a lift?"

"Oh, that's alright," she replies. "Dad's taking me back to school." He can see Eddie standing by his car. "Thanks for the ride."

"Casey," he asks, before she walks away, "do you think - "

"Thanks for coming in, Frank," Eddie hollers from the car before getting in.

"Time travel," Frank says - lamely - to get to the point, "do you think it's a thing?"

Casey looks confused for a second, but considers it. "Yeah." She agrees, gazing off again like she does, thinking. "If we can think of it, why not?"

"Okay." He gives her a tight smile and nods. "Off you go, then."

She jogs off to her father.

He's barely rounded the corner to his car when Athena pops into view. Frank stops himself before he collides with her. "You're - "

"They're coming for her," she says, looking breathless, and it's almost like it's _his_ fault. "If she isn't in anyone's sight, she'll be taken away for sure."

"Do they know?" Frank pulls her close and hides them behind the brick wall. "How long do we - "

"Not much," she says. "They can track her and the density of people. If someone witnessed her disappearance, they'd be taken out as well, and surely they won't want that because people won't think it's over. Chronic event impact and all that." Athena pauses to breathe. She doesn't need to, when it's only for show. "I really shouldn't be telling you all this."

"I know." Frank touches her, his hand lingering on her face. She flickers under his touch. "Just go."

For the first time, Athena hesitates. Flickers. "I - "

And she's gone.

Delicately, he passes his hand through the air where she'd stood, and reaches for his keys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the psych bit that Frank did was pushing Casey to stick to her career path by making a quip or two to make her get mad at him and work on proving him wrong, I think? I don't know much about this stuff, but it seemed to me like Frank would totally do that to give her something to go on with (if NASA were actually tearing down the launch pad movieverse), and also because he's an ass he'd totally get on her nerves for fun, too.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hooo my god has it been this long? you guys that have been here from the start miiight wanna reread, man did i miss this story

Frank leans on the hood of his car and waits for the bell. Casey's one of the first to rush outside, her backpack slung on one shoulder, skidding down the stairs. He can see her eyes widen from where he's standing when she spots him.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Casey asks when she reaches him.

"I'm supposed to pick you up from school now." Frank lies easily as he opens the door for her. Casey gets in, ignoring the whooping of her classmates passing her by. "Apparently this case is getting - hard," Frank says once he's in the car again.

"I can drive, you know," Casey pouts, setting her feet on the dashboard. Frank brushes them off distastefully. "And I take the bus." She pulls out a stack of documents from a folder. "We need to go back. I missed something - the wound's barely bruised, you can't do that with a normal - "

She's bright and painfully selfless, and so very hard to turn down, and Frank pauses to think amidst her rambling for a moment as she hastily sifts through the photos. "Casey, you can't."

For a moment Casey continues looking the evidence over like she hasn't heard him, then she stops completely, slowly looking up at him. "Frank," she asks, voice as low as his, "what's going on?"

"Nothing's going on," Frank snaps, a little too loudly, because sometimes she knows too much, and closes his eyes for a minute so he won't see her face fall. "This is different."

When Frank opens his eyes again Casey's looking at him, fierce and hurt and somehow he knows he let it slip. "Tell me," she says, slowly. "The precinct, the whole of NYPD, they thought we were dealing with terrorists."

Frank doesn't say anything.

"We aren't," and it isn't a question when she says it, "are we."

Frank shouldn't look at her, but he can't turn away as he opens his mouth to say _anything,_ to say that it's not true. Because in a way, it is.

He can't.

"All this time," she starts to laugh, "all this time - the science fair, the tech expo, the opening exhibition at the museum - they were after - what, scientists?"

"It's not just about them," he tries, desperate. "They'll go after whoever they think is a threat to their future but they won't stop until they reach you." He can feel he's losing her. "I know they won't, Casey. This isn't about random killings now, it's about you."

"Why didn't you just _tell me?_ "

_So I could lose you?_ Frank can't think of a goddamn thing to say when what he wants to say is what she _doesn't know -_ when it's what she could never know. "I can't let you die, Casey."

"I don't care!" Casey shouts, frustration rolling off her in waves. "People are dying because of me!"

The words hit him more than it should as his patience finally runs out. "Well, you should."

" _Why?_ " she sobs, and Frank grips her wrist, feels the pulse underneath it, irregular and alive and heartbreaking.

He speaks before she can. "Look at me, kid." She struggles, and he growls. "Look at me!"

Casey does, then, and for one moment he pours his whole being into his eyes, for what it's worth at all.

Either she understands or she doesn't, and he wishes she would because he _can't lose her._

There's a pause as she stares, as he thinks she does understand after all, and, in a flash, uses his distraction to twist out of his hold.

"Casey!"

"You can't stop them." It's not a statement he can contradict, and even then there's something in her voice, something unsure and regretful as she speaks.

Frank isn't quick enough to grab her as Casey gets out of the car and starts to run. As he opens the door, for a fraction of a second his eyesight is filled with a bright light. He curses and follows her outside, where the sun is setting, but he knows he's too late.

She's gone.

She couldn't have gone far.

He realizes the parking lot was empty.

No, no -

"Come on, Frank!" Athena shouts from behind him where she has appeared, and he barely has time to flinch before he's running to her, his shadow stretching towards hers, and joins their hands as the timer in her belt goes off with a blinding light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's been so long and i'm so sorry =((( college examinations are only a few months away. anyways i hope i haven't kept the few of you waiting for too long -3- thank youuu
> 
> (punctuality. all of my formality. gone with the force of life. i am gone)

**Author's Note:**

> I've never actually written a long-shot before (I already had the first part out, but decided you guys can wait XD says who? then I decided to do it in chapters, yay!) let alone in a relatively new fandom, it gets so lonely around here! If anyone wants to shout prompts or ask me weird stuff or scream at me or whatever, I'm [here](http://otp-dilemma.tumblr.com) on tumblr.


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